The persistent achievement gap between Black and White students has frustrated educators, parents, and policymakers for decades. In this blog post, Sami Kitmitto and George Bohrnstedt discuss a recent AIR study for the National Center for Education Statistics that highlights the potentially detrimental effect of school segregation. ...
In a rare occurrence, PISA, TIMSS, and NAEP assessments are releasing science and math results in the same year. Chances are the results from the various assessments won’t all tell the same story. So what do you need to know to make sense of this bumper crop of assessments? In ...
About 1.7 million youth in the U.S. have at least one parent in prison. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of parents held in prisons has risen 79 percent from 1991-2007. Youth with incarcerated parents fare worse than other youth on a range of educational and physical ...
More than nine million individuals are released from correctional facilities annually, and the transition home is not always easy. Many face numerous obstacles including poverty, drug abuse, family dysfunction, and lack of access to services and treatment. Failure to reconnect can mean that many end up back in prison: 68 ...
The National Assessment Governing Board has recently turned increased attention towards the NAEP achievement levels and associated achievement level descriptors. This white paper offers two specific contributions for NAGB to consider as they move forward with plans to develop evidence to support removal of the trial status of the NAEP ...
NAEP's own data shows different rates among college seniors who are proficient vs. those who are ready for college. Until achievement results for 12th grade students with a good dose of Common-Core-based education under their belts become available, says Fran Stancavage in this blog post, educators who set NAEP standards ...
Contributing and working alongside Native Nations, AIR has a deep commitment to engaging communities, fostering shared vision and values, building capacity, and developing strategic alliances to achieve sustainable systems change in Indian Country.
New research is again highlighting the wide variation in states’ student performance standards and overly optimistic reports of student proficiency. Alicia Garcia argues that, going forward, states must adopt evidence-based methods of standard setting that prepare students to compete in the global marketplace. ...
A recent challenge to maintaining NAEP trends has arisen with the exploration of new testing methods and question types that reflect the growing use of technology in education. The purpose of this white paper is to provide a framework for considering device and interface features that may affect student performance ...
This report outlines a number of critical issues that should be addressed in order to allow states to explore and understand relationships between the performance of English language learning students on NAEP and on state assessments in this policy context.